Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Augmented reality (AR) refers to a view of a physical (real) world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual, typically computer-generated, imagery, thereby creating a mixed reality. The augmentation may be conventionally in real time and in context with environmental elements, such a sporting event, a military exercise, a game, etc. AR technology enables the information about surrounding real world of a person to become interactive and digitally usable by adding object recognition and image generation. Artificial information about the environment and the objects may be stored and retrieved as an information layer separate from a real world view layer.
Tracking AR camera motion is a major component of AR, and image processing, markers, sensors, edge detection and object recognition are commonly used for tracking the AR camera motion. Using image processing places a computational load on the image processor and requires complicated interpretation and processing of the imaged scene. Additionally, markers and sensors add bulk and complexity to the AR camera and increase the cost of motion tracking. In some cases, image acquisition and processing may be replaced by three dimensional (3D) image sensors, which utilize structured light for 3D image construction and understanding, however these methods require significant processing power as well and complex and expensive laser projectors to cover the complete scene in the structured light. Further, structured light is typically produced by external independent light projectors, which may add to the computational burden in the 3D image construction, requiring extensive computing resources for AR camera motion tracking.